Crackdown operations launched in IOK

Srinagar, January 03, 2018 (PPI-OT):In occupied Kashmir, Indian police and paramilitary forces, today, launched massive crackdown operations against Hurriyat leaders and activists ahead of the Kashmiris’ Right to Self-Determination Day being observed on Friday.

Mirwaiz Umar Farooq was placed under house arrest, while Muhammad Yasin Malik was arrested from his office at Aabi Guzar. He was shifted to Central Jail, Srinagar. The police arrested other Hurriyat leaders including Bilal Siddiqui, Ghulam Ahmed Gulzar, Syed Imtiyaz Haider, Gulzar Ahmed Butt, Muhammad Yasin Attai and Molvi Bashir Ahmed, and lodged them in different police stations. Pertinently, APHC Chairman, Syed Ali Gilani, continues to remain under house arrest since 2010 while Tehreek-e-Hurriyat General Secretary, Muhammad Ashraf Sehrai, is also facing house detention.

Kashmiris observe 5th January as ‘Right to Self-Determination Day’ every year. It was on this day in 1949 when the UN Security Council had passed a resolution that promised that the people of Jammu and Kashmir would be allowed to decide their political future through the exercise of right to self-determination. The APHC has announced to organize a seminar in connection with the Day on Friday.

The Joint Resistance Leadership comprising Syed Ali Gilani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Muhammad Yasin Malik in a statement issued in Srinagar called for a strike in Sopore on Saturday to commemorate the 6th January, 1993 massacre in the town. The leadership announced to hold a rally and conduct a march towards the martyrs’ graveyard. Over 60 civilians were martyred and more than 350 shops and other structures including residential houses were gutted when the Indian troops set the town ablaze on this day in 1993.

Meanwhile, complete shutdown was observed for the third consecutive day, today, in Pulwama against the killing of three youth including Fardeen Ahmed Khandey and Manzoor Ahmed Baba by the Indian troops. All shops and business establishments and government and private offices were closed while transport was off the road. Traders downed their shutters in Sopore against anti-people policies of the puppet administration.

Hurriyat leaders Mukhtar Ahmad Waza and Yasmeen Raja visited the families of martyrs in Pulwama district. They said that the unresolved Kashmir dispute was the main cause of bloodshed in the occupied territory. Hurriyat leader Musaddiq Aadil after a visit to Baramulla jail said that the detainees were being subjected to physical and mental torture. Zafar Akbar Butt and Javed Ahmad Mir continued their mass contact programmes in different areas of the occupied territory.

The Tehreek-e-Hurriyat Jammu and Kashmir in a statement in Srinagar denounced the torture on its leader, Abdul Samad Inqalabi, by the goons of extremist Hindu organization, Shiv Sena, at Kathua jail in Jammu. The Tehreek-e-Hurriyat said that Hurriyat leaders and activists were not safe even in jails. KMS